I think that this area was the old Nile Crocodile enclosure that was prior to the Pigmy hippo enclosure. The entrance was the exit to the old nocturnal house with its entrance through what is now the owl enclosure on the upper level of tropical realm.
Excellent work ZooChatters……
These three pictures taken in 1987 show the final stages of demolition of the former pygmy hippo indoor quarters at the rear of the Tropical House (Tropical Realm). Two months after I took this picture this area became the ‘indoor picnic area’, a rather unattractive indoor space with a low budget animal based mural painted on the rear wall. It proved most unpopular as a picnic area being dark, smelly and damp. This space later became the capuchin enclosure.
Of course the Ape House and the Nocturnal Houses were once stand – alone buildings before they eventually became two sides of the Tropical House in 1964. Once the Tropical House had been built, as this was a paid for building, visitors were no longer permitted to exit via the down ramp in the photo but, instead left via one of the two high level doors in the photo. The door at the top (right) of the ramp led straight into the Tropical House via a ramp above the Mississippi Alligators enclosure. The mysterious door at the top (left) of the ramp led through to the Nocturnal House which, over the years held an interesting variety of small mammal species from black rats and bush babies to Esmeralda a tree porcupine. Once visitors had passed through the Nocturnal House, they exited via the top level aviary walkway, from where, incidentally they had a high vantage through – glass view into the indoor Chimpanzee (and orang utan) yards before an uninterrupted high level view of the Tropical House indoor Gorilla yards. If any ZooChatters have pictures of the old Nocturnal House or Pygmy Hippo enclosures in their prime, I’d really love to see them.
